The document provides tips for effective business writing, including making writing readable, tactful, personal, positive, active, unified, coherent, clear, concise, and mechanically sound. Key recommendations are to vary sentence structure and choose familiar words to improve readability, avoid language that could offend when being tactful, address the reader directly to make it personal, emphasize positive information and benefits, use active voice for emphasis and conciseness, ensure all ideas relate to the main purpose, connect ideas logically, define all terms, eliminate unnecessary words, and proofread to avoid errors.

1. Rhet3316
Tips for Effective Business Writing
 Readable
 Tactful
 Personal
 Positive
 Active
 Unified
 Coherent
 Clear
 Concise
 Mechanically sound

2. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Readable: allow audience to focus on meaning, not writing style
o Vary sentence length and construction
o Use action verbs
o Carefully choose active or passive voice
o Choose familiar, specific (not abstract) words
o Use lists, headings, and white space effectively
o Keep it short and simple

3. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Tactful: taking care to not offend or alienate reader
 Avoid language bias (gender, cultural, religious, age,
sexual orientation)
 Ensure tone is non-accusatory
 Use humor appropriately

4. Guidelines for Using Humour
 Could it possibly offend or alienate my audience?
 Sufficient in context - i.e. related to the topic?
 Does it add worthwhile value and/or impact to my message?
 Any barriers to humour being understood - i.e. language,
culture, values...?
 Prevents me in any way from achieving my objective?
 Detracts from desired professional image?

5. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Personal: delivering a message to reader rather than from
writer
 If appropriate, frequently use second person pronouns such
as “you” in your writing.
 When using third person, think about how you can direct
message to your reader.
 Be empathetic and try to consider your reader’s needs and
point of view.

6. Example:
Writer-focused:
 We know you’ll enjoy the many benefits of our new health
care plan.
Reader-focused:
 You are going to enjoy the many benefits of your new
health care plan.
Or
 Your new health care plan will benefit you in many ways.

7. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Positive: using tone that encourages positive interpretation
 Make language upbeat and tone “can do.”
 Highlight positive information by placing it at beginning or
end of message.
 Where necessary, use repetition for emphasizing the
positive.
 Discuss influencing factors and suggest reader benefits
before introducing potentially negative information.

8. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Active: applying active voice to focus on “doer”
 Use active voice most of the time to be more emphatic and
concise.
 Choose passive voice if you wish to de-emphasize (or don’t
know) identity of the “doer.”

9. Example:
Active voice:
The internal task force negotiated the important contract.
Passive voice:
The important contract was negotiated by the internal task force.
Active voice:
The dispatcher relayed the call.
Passive voice: The call was relayed by the dispatcher.
or
The call was relayed.

10. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Unified: including only information related to the main
message
 Ensure all ideas in document relate to overall purpose.
 Eliminate unnecessary details.
 Clearly indicate how ideas within sentences relate to one
another.
 Check that paragraphs do not contain more than one central
idea.

11. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Coherent: connecting ideas and making them easy to
understand
 Ensure items in a series have parallel structure.
 Show relationships between ideas by using linking words (and,
if, when, before, after).
 List items in a series to make them stand out.
 Clarify relationships with numbering.
 Use headings to highlight and introduce main ideas.
 Check for dangling constructions and misplaced modifiers.

12. Example:
Incoherent:
Attending the class, a cadaver was used for experiments.
Coherent:
When I attended the class, a cadaver was used for
experiments.
or
The class I attended used a cadaver for experiments.

13. Example:
Lacking parallel structure:
Our goals are increased productivity, reduced costs, and
improving quality.
Attaining parallel structure:
Our goals are increasing productivity, reducing costs, and
improving quality.
or
Our goals are increased productivity, reduced costs, and
improved quality.

14. Example:
Parallel structure in lists:
The sales team objected to the following:
1. reducing salaries
2. limiting travel expenses
3. daily sales meetings
Third point not parallel with first two
Instead you might write –
3. scheduling daily sales meetings

15. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Clear: making message easy to understand the first time it is
read
 Clearly develop your ideas so there are no unanswered
questions.
 Use language that is precise, concrete, and vivid.
 Make language level appropriate for purpose and audience.
 Ensure words used are familiar to reader.
 Define unfamiliar technical terms, short forms, and acronyms
with first use (particularly important if there is a secondary
audience).

16. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Concise: being economical with words
 Eliminate wordy expressions.
 Omit trite phrases.
 Avoid unnecessary repetition.
 Replace abstract terms.

17. Example:
 Wordy: We are fully cognizant of the fact that you are
predisposed to non-concurrence with our opinion.
 Concise: We know you don’t agree.

18. Keep it Short and Simple
in all probability…
close proximity…
at a later point in time…
needless to say…
if you would be so kind…

19. Saying it Twice - Redundancy
The two cars were exactly identical.
The two cars were identical.
His salary increase was small in size.
His salary increase was small.
We are in need of some new changes.
We are in need of some changes.
Let’s meet at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon.
Let’s meet at 3:30 p.m.

20. Tips for Effective Business Writing
Mechanically Sound: eliminate errors to ensure
understanding and credibility
o Verify all sentences are complete and properly structured.
o Check your punctuation.
o Double-check your spelling.
o Don’t trust Spell/Grammar Check to find all errors.
o Purchase and use a dictionary, a thesaurus, and possibly a
style guide.
o Whenever possible, use a peer editor.

21. You Try….
How many errors can you spot?
Please accommodate the companies discrete request too
replace it’s principle negotiator.
>>>
Please accommodate the company’s discreet request to
replace its principal negotiator.

22. Tips for Effective Business Writing:
Executive Summary Version
Effective business writing is:
o clear
o concise
o lacking interference
o focused on reader